Many drug delivery devices of the prior art, such as auto-injectors, syringes, have been developed for self-administration of the drug.
To protect the needle of the drug delivery device from damage or to protect people from needle-prick injuries before using of the device, the needle of the drug delivery device is covered by a protective needle cap of a flexible material which can be encased by a rigid, in particular a plastic needle shield, the so-called rigid needle shield (shortly named RNS).
In order to prepare the drug delivery device for delivering a dose the protective needle cap has to be removed from the needle. This may be done by gripping the protective needle cap and pulling it away from the needle. This will usually result in an exposed needle which is undesirable in terms of needle safety or for person with a needle phobia.
In order to solve that problem the needle of the drug delivery device could be covered by a needle shield or shroud in a manner to hide the needle when the protective needle cap is removed.